


this star will not burn

by GayKravitz



Series: OSAS - Main Story, Prologues, Epilogues, and More [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Canon Divergence - Not What He Seems, Graphic Descriptions of Injuries, Mabel Falls In The Portal, Prologue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-06-08 14:14:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15245151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GayKravitz/pseuds/GayKravitz
Summary: Mabel falls in the portal. Someone helps her.(OSAS PROLOGUE)





	this star will not burn

**Author's Note:**

> this is a prologue to a big fic i'm currently working called "of Stars and Sixers"!!! it deffo wont start being posted any time soon lol but i just wanted to pique some ppl's interests, so i wrote this. 
> 
> the whole premise is mabel falls in the portal but ford isnt the one who helps her, someone else gets to her first.

It was all too much.  
  
Mabel was choking on all the sudden revelations that they uncovered about their great uncle. She knew Grunkle Stan wasn't the greatest person, he's shown that side more than a few times, but he wasn't some... evil supervillian! He loved her- he loved them!  
  
Between the arrest, the fake IDs, the footage of him stealing toxic waste, Mabel was choking on the idea that her great uncle wasn't even her great uncle. She felt like the day had started out with her playing in the ocean with her family and had left her struggling to keep her head above the rough waters. She wanted to believe he was good person! She really, really did!  
  
But this? This... creepy basement behind the vending machine? The other journals? The doomsday looking device that was making the gravity of Gravity Falls invert itself? The way Stan had hidden this, all of this, from all of them all summer?  
  
Mabel didn't know what to think anymore.  
  
She watched the glowing red button with a tightness in her chest. Dipper had his hand splayed over it, his face set in a dark determination. "This all ends now!" Mabel didn't know if she even wanted that.  
  
"DON'T TOUCH THAT BUTTON!"  
  
Something tense within her chest loosened at the sound of her Grunkle's shout. She looked up at him, expecting... she didn't know. For him to be smiling wide, with yellow tinted eyes? For someone else's voice to come from his mouth? She didn't want it to be actually him. She wanted it to be someone else, someone using him for their evil plans. She never, ever wanted to see him, actually Stan, standing there with a heaving chest from running here.  
  
His hands were outstretched, his eyes wide with something Mabel couldn't place. Fear? Anger? Surprise? She couldn't read his face because in her mind it wasn't Grunkle Stan standing there.  
  
"Dipper, just back away." He walked towards them, hands splayed as an act of peace, almost as if Dipper was a scared animal. "Please don't press that shutdown button, you gotta trust me."  
  
Trust him? Mabel wanted to. Mabel wanted a lot of things, but right now Mabel just wanted to be able to trust him. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and ask why and have him answer with nothing but the truth, but the sickening twist of betrayal was still far too fresh.  
  
"And I should trust you why?" Dipper said. "After you stole radioactive waste? After you lied to us all summer?" Right. Right, Mabel couldn't trust him! He lied, he lied to all of them! He hid this big secret right under their noses and hadn't ever explained anything. He even lied to them about not believing in the supernatural! "I don't even know who you are!"  
  
"Look, I know this all seems nuts, but I need that machine to stay on!" Stan looked... genuine. He looked sincere. He wasn't cackling like a villain, he wasn't monologue-ing or tying them up and promising front row seats to the end of the world. He looked so, so genuinely worried. Mabel didn't know about what. "If you just- just let me explain!"  
  
Mabel held a hand to her chest, twisting it tightly in the thick wool of her sweater, trying to get rid of the building heaviness within it. She should be mad, she should be furious with Stan! She should be backing Dipper up, not just standing to side and feeling so helpless. She was torn between two sides and even she didn't know what the sides were.  
  
A beeping drew her from her inner turmoil. Stan looked at his watch with a stricken expression. "Oh no! Brace yourselves!"  
  
Mabel felt herself lift off the ground and screamed. The portal opened wide, its glimmering bright light dancing in her eyes. She saw stars inside of it, beautiful and terrifying at the same time. She was vaguely aware of Soos and Dipper floating up next to her before there was a bolt of lighting shooting through the air of the basement, making her drag her eyes away from the technicolor neon of the portal.  
  
Something inside Mabel popped. She felt herself deflate as she watched Dipper, Soos, and Stan spin wildly in the air and grab onto anything they could to keep from hitting the ceiling.  
  
There was nothing around her, though. She felt herself lift into the air and move around like ball on the surface of water. Mabel was drifting closer and closer to the beautiful and horrifying opening, and something popped.  
  
Mabel was terrified.  
  
"DIPPER!" She screamed, desperately trying to float away from the nightmare before her, tears spilling from her eyes and floating next to her face.  
  
"MABEL!" Dipper and Stan had yelled back in unison, neither acknowledging it, all eyes on her.  
  
"HELP!" She could feel her heart hammering inside her chest as she felt herself drift closer and closer like something was tugging on her with strings. "I'M- I'M FALLING!"  
  
Stan moved first, pushing off the wall and swimming in the air towards her. Dipper watched him before doing the same, both of the rushing towards her.  
  
Mabel felt herself start entering it. Her foot touched the surface and it sent chilling spark waves through her body. She screamed again, waving her arms in a desperate manner, trying to grab onto anything. Dipper and Stan just hovered helplessly as they tried to reach her as she reached for them.  
  
"DIPPER, GRUNKLE STAN, DO SOMETHING!" She could feel the shocks running up her legs and she felt something tug behind her navel, bringing her into the portal quicker than before.  
  
Mabel screamed the whole way, begging and pleading with whoever was listening to please, please help! The electricity from the portal coursed through her veins and she felt nothing and everything. Her nerve endings were firing off in every single possible way and she could do nothing but scream.  
  
"NO!" She looked up at Dipper, who had just yelled that. He was crying, big fat tears floated up and away from his face as he shouted and tried to get to her. "MABEL, COME BACK!"  
  
It was too late, Mabel realized with a dizzying clarity. She was already up to her neck. It was too late.  
  
"I love you." She whispered, her eyes wide and wet as something bright blinded her. Something so, so bright and beautiful and it made Mabel's gut churn.  
  
And then she was falling. Falling deep, deep down and there was nothing to grab onto. Mabel fell through the sky like a shooting star, bright and blinding until she would fizzle out and disappear.  
  
She didn't feel herself hit the ground. She just opened her eyes and suddenly there was something solid beneath her and the sky was above her instead of all around her.  
  
Mabel just stared up at the dancing technicolor sky above her, all writhing and swirling above her in such a way that it made her head fuzzy. What was going on? Where was Dipper and Grunkle Stan? Where was-?  
  
"NOW, THIS IS INTERESTING! SHOOTING STAR HAS DECIDED TO PAY A VISIT!"  
  
Mabel didn't seem to be able to react to the sudden, grating voice that boomed all around her. She couldn't take her eyes off the sky.  
  
"COME ON, NOTHING? NO RUNNING AWAY SCREAMING? NO FUN INSULTS? NO BRIGHTLY COLORED BOYS WITH SYNTHESIZED MUSIC?" The voice paused, almost like it was scrutinizing her. "DON'T TELL ME YOU'VE GOTTEN _BORING_ IN THE FIVE MINUTES I WASN'T WATCHING!"  
  
She felt a deep fear in her chest but she couldn't find it in herself to move and run away like her mind was telling her to. Her joints refused to move even an inch, and her limbs felt like stone.  
  
"HOLD ON A SEC, SHOOTING STAR! YOU AREN'T DEAD, ARE YOU?"  
  
Mabel stared at the dizzying sky and felt a deep emptiness inside her. _Was_ she dead? It felt like it.  
  
"YIKES! YOU MEATSACKS ARE WAY TOO FRAGILE! LET'S GET RID OF YOU BEFORE YOU START STINKING UP THE PLACE! A ROTTING PILE OF MEAT ISNT A VERY FUN ONE!"  
  
There was a snap, a flash of blue and gold, and she was falling again. The fog in her head lifted slightly and she was shoved into the realization that when she hit the ground this time, it was going to hurt.  
  
And hurt it did. She felt herself slam into the dirt below her and several somethings snapped inside of her. She could feel the burning of pain and the warm liquid sliding down her skin but she couldn't move. She desperately tried to lift her arms, to scream, to blink, to just move a finger but her entire body was frozen. She was face down and couldn't open her eyes, nothing but darkness and pain.  
  
The pain was almost excruciating. She dully felt her arm was broken and something sharp had gotten lodged into her shoulder and stung. She couldn't even cry, or blink, she could only just sit there and bleed.  
  
How long would it be until someone found her? Hours, days? Would she bleed or starve to death first?  
  
Something tight clenched up in Mabel's chest as she was once again hit with a startling revelation. She was going to die. She didn't want to die.  
  
But, she will not die.  
  
Mabel wanted to gasp but her body refused. What was that? That wasn't her. She didn't- she didn't think that.  
  
It's okay. Do not be afraid.  
  
She felt her mind relax at the words like they were magic. What? How? Where?  
  
She need not ask who I am.  
  
It had just read her mind. She didn't even know she was going to ask who until they had answered. She couldn't help but wonder if they had ever met before.  
  
We have met before, remember?  
  
She did. She did remember, she remembered an adventure with the time travel guy. She remembered a giant pink... thing. What did they say they were again?  
  
I am an axolotl.  
  
Right. Axel-whats-it. The memories were fuzzy and blurry but slowly sharpened. A different dimension, an axel-lottie, her brother, and two questions.  
  
She is a bright star, Mabel Pines. I will not let it burn out before her time. All she must do is say my name.  
  
With a gasp, Mabel felt her control return to her. She turned her head to the side, out of the dirt, and hissed at the stinging of whatever was stuck in her shoulder. Tears burned in her eyes as she clenched her fist tightly, a quiet sob escaping her mouth.  
  
"Axolotl." She whispered, her voice rough from screaming.  
  
She felt the fog return to her mind. The pain became dulled and her eyes slowly drifted close. She couldn't think, there was nothing but haze behind her eyelids.  
  
Sleep, now. She will awake soon.  
  
The last thing she could see was a pair of feet coming into view and a non-human hand reach out to touch her.  
  
And I smiled.  
  
No, this star would not die today.


End file.
